In this sermon, the speaker encourages the audience to have a solid understanding of the theology of salvation in order to effectively lead others to Jesus Christ. He recommends listening to a tape set called "God's Plan of Salvation" to gain a comprehensive view of God's plan. The speaker then shares his personal experience of leading an Amish man to Christ, emphasizing the importance of setting the stage by addressing the person's spiritual condition and need for help. He concludes by highlighting the significance of sharing a message of hope and the transformative power of Christ's sacrifice.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Alright, well I'm very grateful to be here this evening. My heart is stirred just to sit and be a part and a couple more things from the other subject and then we'll get into the subject for this evening. But in my years of being a minister and watching other men rise up by the grace of God and be ministers, I've noticed this. Most of us men are afraid of our own voice. We are afraid of the sound of our voice. We must overcome that. We must overcome it. I know men who preach, who pray the most eloquent sermons I've ever heard when they're on their face in a prayer meeting where they're hiding their face. But when you get them up before the church, it just doesn't come out the same. What is the difference? If we are afraid of our voice and we're self-conscious and all those things, those are fleshly things, brethren. The Spirit will not be released within us if we're afraid or insecure or don't want to hear our voice, don't want to say very loud because, you know, you can hear it. When you raise your voice, everybody hears it. You hear it. That is probably the biggest obstacle that men have to being effective with their voice. They are afraid of the sound of their own voice. Josh, that's the way it is. So, that's kind of what these exercises are for, that we can get over that seriously. And my own testimony, I was forced to get over it. Stuck on a Sunday school bus to preach to a hundred children without a PA system. Try that. You have to lift your voice or they won't hear you in the back. You have to lift your voice or you won't get their attention. They've been sitting in front of the TV set all week long. You have to lift your voice. So, I had to lift my voice. And if you would have known me, you would never believe that I could ever stand up and speak with boldness. I was so afraid of my voice. I didn't even want to talk to people one-on-one, let alone stand before a whole bunch of people. But I had to. And so, week by week by week after week, and I never could get out of it. I had to do it every Saturday, every Sunday. Pretty soon, I wasn't afraid of my voice anymore. And when I was not afraid of my voice anymore, then God's Spirit was free to be released in my heart. And then, the people would be blessed. So, I just want to leave that encouragement to you. We must get over that aversion to the sound of our own voice. Or we will never be a blessing when we stand to speak to others. So, that's kind of what the exercise is all about. It's to help you get over that. And it's not a fleshly thing. I guarantee it. Some of you know that. You leaned upon the grace of God to get up and share your verses this evening. It's not a fleshly thing. But I just want you to know that's where God is going. He wants to get you to the place where you don't hide or cringe at the sound of your voice. When He gets you to there, then He can flow through you and use your voice, which is yielded to His Spirit, to bless other people. That's what it's all about. There are many, many more speaking gifts in this congregation than what we know of right now. But this little point is hindering many of them. Alright, let's pray. Our God and our Father, we bow down to You with joy this evening at the subject that we have at hand. Winning a soul. Leading a soul to You, Lord. Leading a soul to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. What a blessed opportunity we have this evening, Lord, to share, to learn, to grow, to understand. I pray for us, God. Would You have mercy on us and help us this evening? Would You raise up soul winners, Lord, out of this group? Oh God, would God that every man in the church could lead a soul through. That's our goal, Lord. Use this little session today to get us further along our way to such a lofty goal as this, in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Alright, we... I want to give you just a little bit of an encouragement as we're looking at the subject of leading a soul to Jesus Christ. I would encourage you, if you have it, to get that tape set called God's Plan of Salvation and listen to that. That tape set was given to the youth out in Colorado. But the purpose of the set was to give a broad, conclusive view of God's plan of salvation. Now, I'm not going to present to you a five-hour program of leading a soul to Christ this evening. I don't think you need to take five hours to lead a soul to Jesus Christ. But it's important that you have the theology of salvation right if you want to lead a soul to Jesus Christ. And therefore, I would encourage you in some of your discipleship exercises that you listen to those five tapes which start at the beginning and just the whole thing from the depravity of man all the way to the salvation of his soul and his glory in heaven someday. And just look at it. It is a theology of God's plan of salvation. It's important that we have that in our hearts while we minister to people. If it's in our hearts, then God will be able to use us and we'll know what to say as we're conversing with a lost soul. Because some of them, they see their needs, but they don't understand what faith is all about. If you don't understand what faith is all about, you won't be able to help them. So, get a good panoramic view of the doctrine of salvation. It will help you to lead a soul to Jesus Christ. Salvation. The word salvation means to salvage something. Like to salvage something from a junk pile. And I think that's a beautiful way to describe what salvation is. Each and every one of us was sitting on the junk pile of humanity one day. And God came by and had mercy on us. You want a beautiful picture of the junk pile of humanity? You look into the book of Ezekiel, I believe it's chapter 16, where God describes how He dealt with Israel. How He found him alone, laying in the wilderness, just born, not even washed. I mean, it's quite a description of the filth and the depravity of a man. But then God goes on to say how He took care of Israel and clothed her and loved her and married her and decked her in beautiful garments. And that is also a beautiful description of the salvaging of mankind. Well, that's what salvation is. And it's good for us to understand that when we engage in a conversation with a soul that is lost. The goal is not to convince this person to pray a prayer so that he can go to heaven someday. But rather the goal is, God wants to salvage this man from the junk pile of humanity. And I need to say the right things to him so that God can salvage him. We should read in Romans 1. Paul was very convinced of God's ability, of the Gospel's ability, to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, by Jesus Christ. Paul was totally convinced of God's ability to salvage man from the junk pile of humanity. In Romans 1.15-17, he says these words, So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also. Why? For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Why, Paul? For it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believe it. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Why is he so excited about this? For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Or may I paraphrase it, for therein in the Gospel it is revealed how God makes man righteous. It is in the Gospel, therein it is revealed how God salvages a soul off the junk pile of humanity. It is in the Gospel. The Gospel has the ability, and I'm going to give you different synonyms for the word save. It has the ability to save. It has the ability to rescue. It has the ability to salvage. It has the ability to deliver. It has the ability to heal. It has the ability to make whole. It has the ability to save one from himself. That's what salvation is. That's what we're after. When we find ourselves sitting face to face with a lost soul, we need first of all to realize this man is really lost. He doesn't just need a ticket to heaven. He doesn't just need to change his residence. He needs an absolute, utter transformation that begins on the inside and works its way out to the outside and changes every area of his life. We need to have that in our own heart when we're talking to a soul. Oh, that's beautiful. Man is a fallen creature and you can't get saved if you don't know you're lost. Very simple, but most profound. Very simple, but don't miss that point when you minister to a person who is lost. Man is a fallen creature and he's lost, but he can't be saved until he's lost. He can't be rescued until he knows he's drowning. He cannot be salvaged until he sees, I am sitting on a junk pile and I am of no use. The way I am, he cannot be saved. He cannot be delivered until he's in the state where his heart says, Lord, save me! You understand? That's what deliverance is. I was just looking through an old, old book today, working on the remnant a bit, and it had a picture of a man in a boat. And he's going down the river on this boat and he hears the falls about ten feet ahead of him. And you know, you just put yourself in the boat. The falls is coming. It's a long drop down. You're heading toward it. You know you need deliverance. And just at that very moment, a hand reaches out of nowhere and snatches him out of the boat. That's deliverance! Well, you can't be delivered if you don't know in your heart, I need to be delivered. You can't be hurt. You can't be healed if you don't know you're sick. You can't be made whole if you don't know you're a fallen creature. So, first of all, they must see their condition. They must see their condition. There are many, many verses that you can use to help them to see their condition. You know, you can read the verses out of Romans. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, no, not one. You can go to Isaiah. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. There are many verses that you can use and you find your own. But it's good to have a few verses in your heart and marked in your Bible so that when you find yourself ministering to somebody who's lost, you can begin to show them the condition of their heart. They must see that. So, number one, they must see the condition of their heart. Number two, they must see their sin. And there's a difference. They are sinning because of the condition of their heart. But it's not enough just to get them to make an acknowledgement. Yes, I am a sinner. Well, just about every American will say that. And I can give you my own experiences. I knocked on doors for hours on Saturday in Chicago for years. Everybody agreed. Oh yeah, I know I'm a sinner. I know I sin. I know I'm a sinner. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a man having the revelation in his heart that he is a fallen creature. And because he is a fallen creature, there is sin in his life. Okay? So, they must see their condition and they must see their sin. And I want to say something about that. There is a man, a minister, Ray Comfort is his name. How many know that name, Ray Comfort? Okay, good. He proposes and preaches and promotes the use of the Ten Commandments in evangelism. I have no problem with that. Although, I don't think there's any special power in the Ten Commandments any different than any of the other commandments in the Word of God. I don't believe there is. I mean, you could just, from my perspective, you could just as easily sit down with a lost man if you know he's married and talk to him about his wife and how it's going at home. And for him to realize, yeah, things are not going too well at home and I haven't been a very good husband and the point is, whether you use the Ten Commandments or whether you use any of the other laws or principles in New Testament or old, they need to come to a revelation of the fact that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And they are one of them. I believe in that. In using God's laws to bring an individual under conviction. And this varies in every situation. You know, if you're called on to lead a soul to Christ down in the basement after a sermon has been preached up here, you may not have to do a whole lot on this point right here because the preacher already did it. But if you're sitting in somebody's living room and you've got an open-hearted soul there looking at you, but they don't realize why their life is such a mess, you need to get it across to them and trust the Spirit of God to convict them that they have sin in their life. Whether you use the Ten Commandments or whether you use New Testament laws. It was said, and I know it's so, I've read it, that Finney preached on judgment and the fact that man has broken God's law for several days in his meetings before he ever preached on the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus. He spent several days preaching judgment and Finney was a lawyer and he did a very good job of getting them lost. It was said of him, there were times when the people would beg, you know, on the third or fourth night, please, would somebody help me? No, two more nights, two more nights is what Finney would do. And I'm not sure about all that, but I do know this, that his converts, more of his converts went on to follow the Lord than many other evangelists who did the other. And by the way, that's how Ray Comfort came to the place that he came to of using the Ten Commandments because he was presenting the Gospel in the typical evangelical way. You know, you're a sinner and God loves you and come to Jesus and He will save you. Anybody want to go to heaven, raise your hand and come forward. The only problem was, he noticed these people's lives never changed. Most of them don't want to get baptized and they never come to church. Well, it took him a while before it dawned on him they're not saved. That's just the bottom line. So he changed his strategy after studying the Word and realized they need to see that they're a sinner and that they have sinned in their life and they have sinned against God. That needs to be done. That needs to be done. And I would encourage you, don't just make that a short point. Minister to that person. Probe into their heart a bit. And you'll understand why later because if you do get them down on their knees, you're going to need to have the freedom to probe some more so you can really help them. So, probe a bit. How is it with you? After you've talked a bit about sin and sinners and corruption and the fall of man, so, how is it with you? And he'll probably give you a general statement and say, well, yeah, I know I'm a sinner. No. Let's look a little deeper than that. What kind of life have you been living? He might throw me out of the house. Well, look. Yeah, he might throw you out of the house, but if he's ready to throw you out of the house, he's not ready to get on his knees and pray any prayers. You understand? So, do that kindly, graciously, but bring to bear on his conscience the fact that he's lost and he's a sinner. On top of that, they need to see that there is judgment upon them already. You're lost. You're a sinner. You have been sinning against God. And by the way, there's judgment upon you already because of this. Now, there we preach judgment to come. Just like Jesus said, when He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, He shall convince the world of righteousness and sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come. Those three things. So, we need to do the same thing. And know this. The Spirit of God will be right there with you convincing. That's His job. See? He is the soul winner. So, give Him some tools to work with when you're face to face with a lost soul. It is His job to convince them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come. They need to know that. That means, you need to tell them they're going to hell. The wages of sin is death and hell in the lake of fire for all eternity. They must be willing to repent. My own testimony here, I learned the hard way when I was in Bible school. Leading people to pray a prayer of salvation without repentance got me lots of numbers on my activity report. We had to report those things when I was in Bible school. How many souls did you talk to? How many souls did you lead to Christ? Oh, I put lots of numbers down on my thing. But one day it dawned on me, these people don't ever come to church. And none of them get baptized. Something is wrong. So I went back to the manual and found out that repentance was wrong. That's what was missing. Repentance. So I changed my message. And we parted longer on sin. And then we brought in repentance and asked them if they would be willing to repent and turn away from these sins that we've been talking about. Do you know what happened? Many of them said, Oh, no way. No, I'm not ready for that. Oh, I'll pray a prayer. You want me to pray a prayer? I'll pray a prayer. I'll go to heaven. But I'm not ready for that is what I heard over and over and over again. Well, you know, obviously my activity report, the numbers on my activity report went way down. I didn't look like a very good soul winner anymore. But God taught me a lifelong lesson. They must be willing to repent. That is, to turn around 180 degrees. They must be willing to do that. Once you have a soul to this place, it's time to give them a message of hope. A message of hope. Think about it. The stage has been set by all this preliminary work. Now they're ready for a message of hope. And think about it the other way. If this stage has not been set, it doesn't make much sense to give a message of hope if they're not under the load of the condition of their life. So, here you got this guy going down this boat in the river. And he realizes the cliff, you know, the fall is right up there. Oh, my! Oh, by the way, there will be a hand reaching out for you just before you get to the edge. Oh, beautiful! Amen! Thank you! He's going to listen to that little message, isn't he? Where did you say that hand would be? On the left hand or the right hand? It will be on your right. Oh, thank you, thank you. He's very much in tune to listen to the message of hope. Because he's lost and he knows he's lost. A message of hope. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Christ died to deliver you. You can be changed. You know the little track? That's one of my favorites. You can be changed with the, you know, the little cocoon and the worm and the cocoon and the butterfly. You can be changed. You don't have to live the way you're living. You don't have to be in the condition that you're in. You don't have to have that load that is upon your heart. You can be changed. There is a message of hope. And it is a life transforming message. And I often, in my own personal work, I often turn to Ezekiel chapter 36 just because I like to show them that God wants to give them a new heart. I mean, that's so much more than a ticket to heaven, isn't it? You can go to heaven? No, you can get a new heart. That is a message of hope to an individual who is convicted of sin, who is in a mess and they know it, who is underneath the load of the failures of their life, to say to them, you can have a new heart. God wants to do a supernatural surgery on your heart. And He will do it. That's a message of hope. Well, I'm not going to go into dozens of details about that message of hope. We all know that message of hope very well. But if you listen to those five tapes, there's about a tape and a half on all the details of the message of hope and what happens inside of the heart through that. So, once you have brought them to that place where they see their need, you give them a message of hope, the next response will be, what must I do? Now, they may not say, what must I do to be saved like the Philippian jailer did, but somehow in their heart and out of their mouth, they will begin to express words like, like one man said, you mean I can get a new heart? Yes, you can get a new heart. Oh, how do I do that? You know, that was his next, hey, great! Not, you mean I can go to heaven? But, you mean I can get a new heart? Okay. I want one. I'm tired of this one. What do I do next? Beautiful. Beautiful. There must be that sense of personal need. The sense of need has to be there. When you see that it is, you sense they want help, you sense that they are ready, you can explain to them, this is what you need to do. You need to fall upon your knees and cry out to God in repentance and confess the sins of your life. That's the first thing you need to do. Are you willing to do that? Get down on your knees and open your heart to God and repent. Tell God, what you've done, are you willing to do that, Josh? Josh is tired tonight. God bless him. He wanted to come. He found out I'm going to teach on winning a soul and Josh wanted to come. So, I said, you can come, Josh. What must I do? You must be willing to fall on your knees, repent and confess your sins. You must be willing to cry out to God and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. These are the kind of words you want to share with them. You are preparing their mind for some holy exercises that you're going to put them through when you get them on their knees. But they need to know a little bit ahead of time what is coming down the pike. You must be willing to get on your knees and cry out to God and say, God, have mercy upon me. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You must believe that He will save you. And I often will ask them, do you believe that? Do you believe if you would get down on your knees, repent of your sins and call upon God, do you believe that He would save you? And if they would say, I don't know if I do. Well then, you're not ready to get down on your knees. No problem. Just go back to some other verses. Well, let's look at this verse and let's look at this verse over in John. Let's look at this verse in 1 John and look at these two verses in Romans. They need a few more verses. Now, do you see that? Do you understand? Okay, yes, I do. Do you believe God would save you? Oh yeah, I do. I believe that. Good. Just a couple of thoughts here on what it means to believe before we get into the actual. What it means to believe. To believe is an action of the heart. Believe is to believe into Christ the Lord. It's not simply a mental ascent to something that you heard. It is not that. It is a heart exercise. A believing into Christ. And that believing into Christ has within it a losing your all in Him and leaving your past behind. So you see, it's not just hearing this wonderful message and saying, yes, I believe that message. No, that's not what believing is. That may be a mental ascent. But believing is more than that. I've used the chair before, you know. You can say, yeah, I believe that chair will take me up. I believe that chair will hold me. I believe that. I see that chair. It has four legs. I believe that chair will hold me up. Okay, so big deal. So you believe that. Get up on the chair. That's what believing means. Get up on the chair. Well, there's a big difference between looking at a chair and saying that chair will hold me up and getting on that chair. There's a big difference. So that's what believing on Jesus Christ means. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It is a casting of your entire being upon God. When you think about it, justification by faith is utter foolishness if all of what we have talked about already is not there in that person's life. If there's no brokenness, if they don't see their need, if they don't realize they're lost, if they don't say, Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from me? If they don't see any of that, to tell them, believe on Jesus and you'll be saved. It doesn't come out right. And it hasn't come out right for millions in this land of ours. Millions. It has not come out right. We have churches full of unbelievers who have been baptized because they prayed a prayer saying, Lord, I believe that chair will hold me up. Just another word about faith here, which illustrates how this whole thing works together. Man seeing his need, the condition of his heart, the reality of where he's really at, and the beautiful hope of salvation that is presented to him, the Son of Man be lifted up. Well, Jesus was referring to that illustration back there in the Old Testament, in the book of Numbers, when the children of Israel murmured against God and God sent fiery serpents, poisonous serpents, into the midst of them to bite them. And the people were bitten by the thousands. And they cried out to Moses and said, Moses, cry out to God that God would have mercy on us. We've sinned. We know we have. Moses went to God. God said to Moses, take a brazen serpent and hang it on a pole and set it up in the midst of the camp. Okay? And tell the people, all who will look at the serpent on the pole will be healed. Okay. Now, here we have a camp full of people. And many of them have been bitten by the serpent. No question in their mind whether they need to be healed or not. No question at all. They're laying inside their tent. They're laying by the side of their tent. They're laying out there where the river is trying to get some water. And they're sick. And they're dying. And they're under judgment because they have sinned. And they know it. Every one of them. They know why they're there. They know they're sick. They know they're probably going to die. They know they're under judgment. And they know why they're under judgment. Beautiful. That's all the things we've covered so far. And from there, Moses sends a message of hope out through the camp. There is healing for a look at the serpent on the pole. Wow! There's healing for a look at the serpent on the pole. That news came to all those people that were sick. And I know that some of them never made it to the pole just because of human nature. They didn't believe him. Somebody came through and said, Hey, Moses said, there's a pole out there in the midst of the camp. You go look at that pole, you'll be healed. Someone said, Can't be. Can't be that simple. Someone said, I don't want anybody else to know that I got bit. Right? I don't want to know I got bit. They'll know I'm one of them that was under judgment. All kinds of different things happen. But some of the people, when they heard the message of hope, rose up in their heart first. You can be sure of it. And then they drug themselves out of that tent and they made their way down the lanes and they may have asked a few questions on the way. Where's the serpent on the pole? It's down this way. Thank you. And they made their way over there where that serpent was on the pole and they looked up at that serpent on the pole and they were healed. But let me ask you, did they just look at a serpent on the pole like I'm looking at a chair sitting here? Their heart was filled with faith. The message of hope had sunken in their desperate needy heart and they went looking for that pole in desperation and faith and when they saw it, they were healed. Do you see what I'm saying? That is exactly what we want to do with a lost person. Paul said it this way in Romans chapter 10 verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, or that Jesus is the Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Beautiful. Beautiful portion of Scripture. For whosoever then shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Okay. So, let's just assume now that we've been through all of that. We've given this message of hope. We've explained to this person what they need to do. And they're sitting there saying, where do we start? I want help. So, okay. We're going to get them down on their knees. Where do we begin? Here's where I begin. Every time. In fact, I got the blessed opportunity of leading that Amishman to the Lord a week ago. We can have a go. Oh, two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, I had that privilege. What I'm going to go through with you is exactly what I did with him. Exactly. Now, different people respond different ways and they say different things and all of that. But the basic pattern of what I'm going to share now is exactly what I did with this man. And, he was ready. He'd been sitting through meetings. He heard Manny preach three times already. He was under the load. He was convicted. He was in desperation. He knew he needed help. And he could hardly speak. He wept every time he started to speak. So, I didn't need to preach to him about sin. I didn't need to tell him any of those things. I didn't need to give him a message of hope. Manny already gave him that. So, he was right at the place where we are here this evening. He just said, what do I need to do? I've got to have help. What do I need to do? And I said, and I say, alright, you need to get down on your knees. Let's just get down on our knees right now. And usually what I do is I pray a prayer first. And I ask God to win this soul. He is the soul winner. He is the one who can win that soul. I can't do anything. I can't change that person's inside. I can't do surgery and give them a new heart. God has to do all of that. If God's the one that's going to do all that, then let's trust Him to lead the soul through to that beautiful salvation. So that's the way I always begin. I get on my knees and I just break my heart and say, God, I don't know how to help this man. I don't know what to say to him. But I know that You do. I pray that You will win this man's soul this very night. Bring him through to a beautiful place of salvation in Jesus Christ. I pray that prayer. Then I say to him, he's on his knees. He's bowed. His eyes are closed. And I'll say to him, Alright, first of all, I want you to confess your sins to God. I want you to bring up before the Lord anything that God brings to your heart and your mind and confess it to God. Tell God what it is. Tell God it's sin. Tell God what you did. And repent as you tell God. And ask God to forgive you. That's somewhat what I say to them. And there, then they just go. And some people are, they have more knowledge than other people and they just go down the road themselves. But other people, they'll say things like, Oh Lord, I don't want to do this anymore. Lord, I don't want to do that anymore. Lord, help me with this. And I'll stop them. And I'll say, No, don't pray like this. Pray this way. Lord, I am a... And we just zero it right in. Lord, I am a lustful man and I have done this and I have done this and I... God, I've done this. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. I repent of it. I repent of this. I'm not going to do it anymore, Lord. I'm done with it. And I just give them a little guidance like that if they're not saying the right thing. And I feel it's important that you get them out of the general and move them into the specific. Hey, they've never done it before. They want your help. I get them out of the general and get them into the specific. Tell God what you've done. So, we go through that. And that could be 20. You could be doing that for 25 minutes. Depending on the individual. You could be doing that. During the time that they're doing that, I'm praying. Lord, is there anything that I need to say to this person? I'm praying. Lord, give me discernment. Because sometimes, I'll get a word of knowledge and I'll just say, Hey, is there somebody in your life that you can't forgive? I mean, that's a big one, right? And it just opens things right up. Oh, yes. My dad or whatever. Hey, we want to get that thing taken care of. So, I ask God for wisdom like that. And I, who knows, I say whatever God brings to my mind. Or I don't say anything depending on the individual. Do you ever cheat when you were in school? You know, on the test? Whatever God brings to my mind, I just bring it up. And just drop a little in here and there. And you know, then they may start praying again and three or four more things will come. Then when they haven't said anything for a couple moments and you realize, maybe they're getting to the end. Then I usually pray this prayer. Father, Father, if there's anything else on John's heart, if there are any other issues between you and him, quicken his mind this very moment by your Spirit. Then I'm quiet a moment. Almost every time. Oh, yes, Lord. And then they have some other things, see? Because what happens is, by praying that prayer, they also hear that prayer. They open their heart up and say, Lord, maybe there are some more. And then immediately, God brings a couple more things to their mind, so they deal with those. Okay. So, maybe that takes 25 minutes. Now it's quiet. Now I'll say to them, do you feel clear in your heart? I'll ask them that question. And they may say, no, I don't. And then we have more work to do. But if they say, yes, there's nothing else, I can't think of anything. Okay. Fine. Then I guide them a bit from here. And this is what I do. I'll tell them. They're on their knees. They've been weeping. They've been breaking their heart. They've been confessing their sin. They've been asking God to forgive them. And all that. Now they're on their face, and I'll tell them, while you're there on your knees, with your head bowed, and your eyes closed, I want you to just picture in your mind's eye, picture the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on the cross. And I'll just wait. Then I'll ask them, can you picture that? Do you see Him? Can you see Him there? Most of the time, they break down and weep. See? Because they know why He's there by now. They know. Do you see Him there? Yes, I do. And I'll say their name. I'll say, John, you know, He's hanging on that cross for you. He's hanging there for you. All those things you did, He died on that cross to wash all those sins away. Do you believe that, John? Yes, I do. Do you believe if you would call upon the Lord Jesus right now, do you believe He would save you? I've never heard one say no yet. After they've done all that homework. Yes, I do. Well, then you just call upon the Lord right now and ask Him to save your soul. Ask Him to wash all those sins away. Ask Him to give you a new heart. And I'll just preach a little bit of what I already told them that can happen in their heart and their life. And then let them pray. And they call upon the Lord. And if they are praying right words, I let them. But if they just say, Oh Lord, you know, I need your help, you know, or whatever, I stop them. I say, no, pray this prayer. And I will. And I don't have a problem doing this. If their heart is broken, pray this prayer. Dear Lord Jesus. And they pray. I see you there hanging on the cross. And they'll say that. And I just guide them. I believe that you died on that cross for me, Lord. And they'll say that. Oh Lord, have mercy on me. I know I'm a sinner, God. Would you have mercy on me and save my soul? Well, once they've said a few of those kind of words, usually I can just back right out of the way. They take off from there. They just take off from there. And they pray. A beautiful sinner's prayer. Then it gets quiet again. And I ask them. They're still on their face. I ask them, just kind of quietly in their ear. Did the Lord save you? Yes, He did! He did! You know, it's like it dawns on their heart while you say the words. See? And that's what belief in the heart does. See? And they're just confessing with their mouth what they believe in their heart. And the assurance floods their heart. Yes, He did! Well then, you thank Him for it. Don't need to guide them in that prayer. Never. Oh Lord, thank you for saving my soul, God. I love you. Usually they get ahead of me by then, you know. Because the gratitude of their heart is ready to say other things. So I let them pray and thank God and bless God and praise God. When it gets quiet, then I tell them. Okay, we're not done yet. We're not done yet. I want you to pray some more here. And I just explain to them. You do not belong to yourself anymore. You belong to God. Your life is His life. And I want you to pray a prayer of consecration and just give your life to God. You have a new life. He's given you a new heart. Just tell God. And I just preach to them a little bit. I'll do anything, Lord. I'll go anywhere, Lord. Anything you tell me to change, I'll change it. And I just give them a few things like that. And then have them pray again. And they pray. A beautiful prayer of consecration. When they're done there, we're not done yet. But when it's quiet again, then I say to them this. We have one more prayer that I want you to pray. And I explain to them the principles in Luke chapter 11. That if a son asks a father for bread, will the father give the son a scorpion? And then I explain to them the promise. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? Do you see that promise? I tell them. Do you see that promise? Do you believe that promise? See, you now have a Heavenly Father. You need to ask God to give you His Spirit. Right this moment. Let's do that yet. And they pray. And ask God to give them His Spirit or fill them with the Spirit, whatever they pray. When they finish praying that prayer, when it gets quiet again, I put my hands on their head and I pray that prayer. Lord Jesus, Heavenly Father, fill this person with Your Spirit. This very moment. And give them the witness of Your Spirit in their heart that they are a child of God. And I pray some kind of a prayer like that. By then, you don't have to ask them anything. They get up off their knees. They're full of joy. They're full of gratitude. They're excited. They are so happy for what has happened to them. And they look like a totally different person at that point. I had the opportunity of working with a couple down in North Carolina some years ago. And both of them thought they were saved when they came to the meetings. But they weren't. And she was courageous enough to be the first one to go down the altar and say, I am not born again. But when it came time to deal with her, he came along too. So I had a husband and a wife. And he was a Christian, but she was saying, I don't have the real thing. So this went back and forth a bit until he kept trying to convince her that she does. And she kept trying to say, I don't. And finally I quieted him and said, I don't think she's born again. Why don't you just sit back, let me work with her, and we can talk to you afterwards. And he backed off and let me lead her to Christ. And I led her just like this. When she got up off her knees, she was radiant. She was full of joy. She was so excited and clear as a bell. Clear as can be. I looked over at him. He was indignant. And he said these words. He said, I want to do that. Nobody ever told me anything like that before. See, he prayed a prayer. He got his little prayer at an altar somewhere, probably in a Baptist church. I believe that was their background. But when he saw how she got dealt with, he said, I've been cheated. And he has been cheated. The poor fellow's been stumbling around trying to be a Christian without a new heart. He has been cheated. And he said, I want to do that. Well, I didn't jump on that one. I just told him, we'll have a prayer. And if you truly are not converted, we had two more days of the meetings. I said, God will show you through the day tomorrow. And you can respond tomorrow evening and I'll work with you. So, we left it at that. He went through the day. He was the first one at the altar. And we led him through just like his wife. Totally transformed home. Beautiful. Saw him in North Carolina at a wedding not too long ago. And they were just a beautiful couple. God totally changed them. And totally changed their marriage. And totally changed their home. He was cheated, brethren. He was cheated. We don't want to cheat anybody. I believe if we will do this with faith in our own heart, God will give people a new heart. Now, that is exciting. That is exciting. And God wants to use you to do that. Even you. So, I would just leave this encouragement with you. Learn how to do it. Don't stop until you know how to do it. When you start to feel comfortable with these basic steps, then go with somebody else. Maybe there is an invitation given at the altar and you see the ministers go downstairs to help. Slip out the back door. Go downstairs and say, Brother Aaron, can I just sit in and learn? And eventually, you can be the one that goes downstairs and leads the soul to Jesus Christ. That's our goal. We want you to enjoy the blessings of being fishermen. And so, that ends my little talk here this evening. May God bless you as you win souls.